The Doctors Wife
by Aerilon452
Summary: Spending time together River and the Doctor are about to depart from the Old West when River is shot forcing the Doctor to face his feelings for her.


Summary: River is injured leading the Doctor to act and finally admit what he feels for her

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Doctor Who.

Rating: T+

Pairing: River and the Doctor

**THE DOCTORS WIFE:**

River Song, a Doctor of Archeology, stood in the blistering sun back in time in the Old West as her sweetie walked towards her. Her Doctor wore his bow tie, suspenders, and a Stetson on his head. It reminded her of the one she had shot off his head at Lake Silencio. A knife twisted in her heart remembering those events. The Doctor always had a plan. "Have you had your fill of the Old West sweetie?" She asked blinking at the harsh glare of the sun. To save all of time and space he had married her in a combat zone then asked her to help end his pain. She had done so knowing what would happen, but because he had asked her, River could not deny him. He was her Doctor, the man she loved like no other in this world. He was her world. She had known the best and worst of life all while knowing him. The Doctor was the only man for her in this, or any life time.

"Yes, though I must admit this is the first time I haven't had to run back to the TARDIS." The Doctor joked flicking the brim of his Stetson up to gaze at River. She leaned against the open door of the TARDIS, a six shooter at her hip and the book resting under the leather of her belt. He loved his naughty River, the woman he had married. In his pocket he had been carrying a ring that he intended to give to her, but he always wondered what it would do to her book if he did so. Still, it was now or never and never for him could be a long way off. Stepping to her, he pulled out the ring and handed it to her. "I meant to give this to you the last time, but… time travel. I never know which you I'm meeting."

River's heart clenched seeing the silver glinting in the sun. He was rewriting their history and River wasn't going to stop him. She held out her hand to him, her left hand, watching his rapt attention while he slid the silver band on her index finger. That made her smile. Even as he gave her the ring he was protecting their secret; protecting her as his wife. Gently the Doctor spun the inner track of the ring to show her the old high Gallifrayen word for wife carved into the metal. No one knew the language of the Time Lords except for them. River turned a watery gaze on him, happiness washed through her. The pad of his thumb caressed the top of her knuckles. "It's beautiful." River managed to say past all the emotions lodged in her throat.

The Doctor reached out, caressed her cheek lightly seeing how the setting sun played in her curly hair. Tears filled her eyes, tears of happiness, and made her the color of her iris's stand out even more. Reflected in her eyes he could see the figure of a man; River saw it too. In a quick flash she had shoved him inside the TARDIS as a loud bang broke the silence of the sunset followed by the doors closing. "Ok, we're out of here!" He shouted going to the controls.

River stood at the doors of the TARDIS trying to piece together what had just happened. The Doctor, her love, gave her a ring that said 'wife', then from out of no where a man with a gun shot at him. If she had not acted as quickly as she had, her love would have been hurt or killed. The flurry of motion died down with immense pain exploding in her chest. River doubled over putting her hand over her heart. She felt something warm and sticky coating her hand. Pulling it away she saw her own blood painting her palm. "Oh no…" She breathed out collapsing to the floor just by the door.

"Where should we go now?" The Doctor shouted over the TARDIS engines. He turned to see River on the floor, she wasn't moving. Everything else he was doing didn't matter in that moment. Abandoning the controls he ran to her, skidded along the floor beside her to see her hand over her heart and blood pooling on her shirt. "No, no, no… RIVER!" The Doctor hauled her into his lap, his arms going around her. "RIVER!"

River heard her name, he was shouting at her. Forcing her eyes open she looked up into the face she had come to love so much, "Seems…. I've gone…" She clutched at her chest, "and gotten in a small patch of trouble." River gasped. Her chest felt so heavy and it hurt to breathe. Her eyes were so hard to keep open as she was trying to hold on to the sound of his voice calling to her in the dark.

"No, you hold on! You hear me!" The Doctor picked her up taking River to one of the chairs. He had to get her somewhere that could help her. There was only one place he could go. Setting the coordinates he hit the switch that would take him through time and space to New New York. It seemed an eternity until the TARDIS landed making the sound he thought was so cool. Now it meant he could breathe, he could get her some help. Going over to the chair he hauled her into his arms and headed out into the hospital where cat nuns flitted about tending to those who had come to them seeking treatment. "Help, someone… please! She needs help!" He called out. Then a flurry of cat nurses came around him with one familiar face he knew. "Novice Hame!" The Doctor shouted as River was taken from his arms and placed on a bio-bed. His hand still held hers.

River could feel her nerve endings screaming out in pain as she was moved from the Doctors arms on to a bed. The bullet she had taken for her love was still lodged in her chest, so close to her heart. Life was fading fast from her; River could feel it, just as she could feel his hand holding tightly. She tried to hold his hand in return but her strength was fading. "Doctor…" River forced his name past her lips as she was rushed away from him. He tried to stay with her, his hand still clutching her, but a cat appeared to his left restraining him. His hand fell from hers. Doors closed taking her last view of him; his face stricken with terror. Her Doctor was afraid she would die.

The Doctor tried to get through the doors, to follow River to make sure she was going to survive. He was afraid for her life. Looking down in his hand, her ring was in his palm splashed with her blood. River's blood. "No, no, no, no…." The Doctor chanted over and over. He couldn't lose River. Not when he had just found the right time stream for them both. To his left, Novice Hame gripped his arm keeping him where he was. "Let me go." He growled.

"No, you must wait here… Doctor." She had recognized him even though his face had changed. "She's in the best hands of healing imaginable." Hame tightened her grasp.

"You don't understand!" The Doctor shouted. He wasn't prone to shout, but it was river. She brought out his emotions. "She's important to me." The Doctor murmured letting his body go still as he stopped fighting to get free of Novice Hame. She had been a friend the last time he had been here after the Face of Beau contacted him on the psychic paper. He couldn't take his eyes off the ring resting in his hand. River couldn't die, he wouldn't allow it. She was the child of the TARDIS, she was hard to kill, and she was a survivor.

Hame could see the torment rushing through the Doctor. The woman he had had in his arms may be important, but her feline senses could pick up more than that. The Doctor had a deep emotional connection to the injured woman and it was killing him to be standing here being useless. "She will recover Doctor." Gently she guided him over to one of benches resting along the wall and urged him to sit down. Hame moved away to the kiosk to retrieve antibacterial wipes so she could clean the blood off of his hands. Shock had set in inside of him.

The Doctor managed to center his gaze on the doors that separated him from River. All manner of unpleasant thoughts ran through his head even as he tried to stop them. He envisioned her dying alone and in pain. He heard her shouting his name, calling out to him and he couldn't go to her. Over and over his mind tortured him with the worst fate of River Song. Then, Novice Hame took his hands gently in hers and started to clean off the blood. He couldn't stop her until she tried to take the ring from his open palm. Quickly his hand snapped shut and his body broke free of his shock induced paralysis. His two hearts thundered in his chest with every second that passed by. "Oh River… don't die…" A single, silent secret tear fell.

**HOURS LATER:**

The Doctor stood at the window in the recovery ward looking out the window at the once populated city of New New York. 150 years and the city was right back where it had started the first time he had come here. Humans were remarkable to him. Every once in a while he would wander back over to her bed side, scan her with his sonic screwdriver just to make sure was on the mend. The Cat Nun/Nurses had repaired the damage to the outer wall of her heart, removed the bullet, fixed the torn tissue of her lung, and placed a skin graft over the wound to help aide in the healing. She was going to make it.

Outside the window storm clouds had gathered; rain was coming. Soon the air would smell like wet apple grass bringing back memories of Rose and of Martha Jones. Both of them he had brought here and both of them had had their lives ruined because of him. Guilt took him then. Would he do to River what he had done to the others? No, she knew what would happen in their future. Except for this. Time can be rewritten and it had. He had managed to get them to the right point in time where they could be together and have everything be new for both of them. Turning back to River, he ambled back over to her bedside, his head lowered and shoulders hunched. No one was around to see the mighty Time Lord suffering from the weight of his guilt. Sitting down beside the woman he married to save all of time and space, the Doctor slipped the silver band back onto her finger, and waited for her to wake up.

River felt drugged, in pain, and trying to wake up. The last thing she remembered had to be the immense, mind breaking, pain in her chest after she had taken a bullet that would have taken the Doctor. Her main concern whenever the Doctor was around was keeping him alive, he was the single most important person and he needed to be protected. That's what she had done; she had protected him. River tried to open her eyes, but she was too tired.

Sitting at her bedside, the Doctor could see River fighting to come awake. He took her hand running his thumb over her knuckles. No one was around; he could be a man waiting desperately for his woman to wake up. And she was his woman, heart, soul, but he had yet to claim her body. Every single time they flirted, stood close together, or she stole a kiss, there was some force holding him back telling him it wasn't the right time. It wasn't because she was Melody Pond; Amelia's daughter. It was something else. There was a time for them to be together truly as one.

River could barely feel his hand on hers under all the layers of drugs being pumped into her body to kill infection, speeding healing, and to dull the pain. But she could tell he was there. She could feel herself groan and try to move. Her body refused to obey with the residual pain spiking through her again. Yet, River fought, she opened her eyes to see him staring at her. "Hel… lo… swe…etie." She managed, her words only hardly slurring.

"There's my naughty girl." He crooned touching River's forehead lovingly. She seemed to be on the mend, getting stronger. The Doctor had been on pins and needles as the hours passed waiting for River to wake up. As it was now she was still just half awake; too many drugs flowing through her body aiding in her recovery. Sleep was apart of that. "But you have to fall back asleep and rest." He whispered leaning over to kiss her forehead just like he would do to her mother.

"Will you still be here?" She asked licking her lips. They were so dry and her chest still hurt a great deal. River had taken a bullet for him, would have given her life willingly should the moment require it. The universe could end tomorrow and she would be content as long as the Doctor was with her.

"Of course I will." He assured lightly squeezing her hand as River slipped back into unconsciousness. The Doctor would need more time to calm down. Inside he was a raging storm of anger, and of fear. He had come so close to losing River when he had already lost so many people. There was no way he would go through that again, not when he could help it. River was his and she would remain so.

**THE NEXT DAY:**

Rive woke again in the same bed, in the same room, that she had woken up in before. She remembered being shot, remembered hearing her Doctor shouting her name. Her chest still hurt, but it was on the mend. River turned her head as best as she could to see her Doctor sitting by her side, his head resting on the bed next to her hand. He had stayed with her. As best as she could River moved her fingers touching the strands of his hair; the pad of her index finger barely touching his forehead. That subtle touch had him stirring. A gentle groan sounded on the air as his head turned and his eyes opened looking at her, sleep still filling his gaze. "You stayed."

The Doctor rubbed his forehead against the edge of the bed, dispelling the rest of the exhaustion before looking at River again. "Of course I stayed. I wouldn't leave you alone in a place like this, not again." The last time he had to leave River had been with the Sisters of the Infinite Schism. She had to make her way in the universe, but now times were different. "How are you feeling?" He asked standing letting the rest of his body come awake.

River swallowed fighting back a small moa of pain. "I feel like I was shot." She teased gently. Long ago she vowed to give her life for his if need be. "Though, not as bad as I thought it could have been." Slowly she tried to sit up, but then his hand was on her shoulder. The Doctor gently urged her to stay down. Looking into his eyes, River saw the look of love. He loved her; she could see it. River would wait until he was ready to tell her, to make that step she had been waiting for him to take. From the first moment she saw him, River always knew she would love him. "You weren't worried about me were you?"

"More than you can know." He answered leaning down to kiss her forehead; lips lingering on her skin. "I've known fear River, but none greater than when I saw your blood." He could tell, River exerted all the energy she had bringing her arms up and over his shoulders. Slowly he sat down beside her letting her sit up, resting against her. She nuzzled the side of his neck, breathing him in just as he breathed her in, felt her alive in his arms.

"I floated between life and death knowing that I wouldn't have another." River fought back a wave of emotion as she clung to her Doctor. But he was here, she was alive, and they would be fine. Yet, something inside of River said this was just the start of the latest trouble for them; for the Doctor. "That…"

The Doctor pulled back from River cupping her face letting her see the tears that streamed down his cheeks. "Don't ever do that again. Don't give your life for mine again, River." He demanded. "I'm not going to lose you." Resting his forehead to hers he took a calming breath in trying not to shudder as he did so.

"Oh, my love, I will always trade my life for you." River said, tears choking her. "I took yours and must give mine in return." She kissed him lightly.

"No," The Doctor shook his head from side to side. River was always so sure of them, of how they would end up. "We aren't gonna have any more back to front moment's. We'll have a life." He promised.

"Time Lord?" River asked. "Is time to bend to your will now?"

"When it comes to you, yeah." He answered smiling at her.


End file.
